The Sovereign Hub Podcast

Hi,

Which AI tool can you actually trust? Is the free version safe to use at work? And do you really have to read everything AI produces?

HR professionals in UK small and medium-sized businesses ask me these questions wherever I go. So I’ve put the most popular ones together and split them into two episodes. In Part 1 this week, we cover choosing and trusting AI tools, and getting started. Each answer is short and practical.

Here are the questions we dive into today

If you’ve asked any of these yourself, you’re in good company:

* I get different answers from Copilot, ChatGPT and Gemini. Which one can I rely on?

* We’re on free ChatGPT. Is it safe for work, and is a paid version worth it?

* How do I check AI’s work before I use it?

* How are other HR people using AI now, and are there tools I should be looking at?

* What else can I use AI for, beyond drafting emails and policies?

* Our HR team is small and short on time. Where would AI help us most?

* Which everyday HR tasks are good to start with, and which should I keep for myself?

What you’ll take away:

* Why different answers are normal, and where trust really comes from

* What changes when you pay for a licence, and what to keep out of any tool your organisation hasn’t approved

* A simple checking routine covering facts, sources, law, culture, tone and confidentiality

* What AI tools other HR professionals are using and what they are using them for.

* Uses beyond drafting, including rehearsing a difficult conversation with AI playing the employee

* A quick way to find the tasks worth handing over first

* The HR work that should stay with you

About 15 minutes, no jargon.

Part one questions and answers is a free download in the show notes, so you can keep it to hand. Newt week the full set will be available.

Here’s a question for you to think about:

‘Which task do you repeat most often each week, and have you ever asked AI to help with it?’

If you found this useful, please give it a like and share it with an HR colleague who’s asking the same questions. It helps more people find the Hub

Next Thursday is Part 2. We’ll cover HR’s questions about AI in recruitment and data privacy, employees who use AI, the growing use of AI in grievances, appeals and tribunal claims, and what your AI policy should cover.

Download part one questions and answers from the Hub on Substack.

It has all the links you need. here are some more:

Draft Your AI Policy in Half a Day, a live session: book your place Designed specifically for HR professionals and their advisors.

Prompt Coach: Ever wondered if an AI agent could help you prompt better?

https://carolynshepherd.substack.com/p/ever-wondered-if-an-ai-agent-could

Potatoes and bacon: Check Your AI Outputs for Potatoes and Bacon

https://carolynshepherd.substack.com/p/check-your-ai-outputs-for-potatoes

Jobscaping®: Are you worrying about using AI?

https://carolynshepherd.substack.com/p/are-you-worrying-about-using-ai

See you next week and until then, Stay Sovereign!

Has anyone asked you yet whether their job is safe?

If not, they will. I’m hearing it in corridors, in one-to-ones and in that quiet moment at the end of a meeting when someone hangs back. Telling them it’ll be fine isn’t an answer, because right now none of us really knows.

Most leaders say they have a clear AI strategy. Far fewer say it has significantly changed how work is done. That gap is a people gap. And in the research, HR doesn’t get a mention.

If any of this is on your mind, this one’s for you:

* Someone has asked me if their job is safe, and I had nothing to show them

* I’m waiting for IT or the CEO to take the lead on AI

* We’ve bought licences, run a demo and hoped for the best

What you’ll take away:

* The three common-sense steps to a plan (the same logic as filling up the car)

* Why a plan that only saves HR time on admin is the easiest kind to sign and forget

* The three things CEOs sign off on, and how to link every AI use in your plan to one of them

* Why “have we adopted AI?” is like asking “have we adopted electricity?”

* How to use your own role as a worked example: what you delegate, what you collaborate on and what you protect

* Why HR can’t redesign everyone’s job, and what to do instead

About 30 minutes, no jargon.

Here’s a question for you to think about:When someone in your organisation is worried AI will affect their job, who do they take it to?

If this episode makes you think of someone, such as your MD, a line manager or another HR colleague, send it to them. Just tap the share button in your podcast app. It takes ten seconds.

And next Thursday, I’ll take a deep dive into feedback from HR leaders about what their main focus is when it comes to AI.

Before then, on Wednesday 28 October at 12.30pm, I’m running my webinar How to write an AI Plan your CEO will sign. Around 80 people registered for last month’s session, so book your place now: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_w7KSj7AtSdi1srHSvXv7vw

Stay Sovereign, Carolyn

About Ruhul

Ruhul Saiyed is Business Development Director at Ergaris HR, where she is extending her HR remit into commercial strategy and growth. She started out in social work, and that people-first grounding still shapes how she approaches every role. Since then she has worked in HR in the care sector, built an HR function from scratch for a tech start-up, coordinated the relocation of more than 90 employees across 12 countries at BAT’s global headquarters and led HR strategy across Asian markets. She is CIPD Level 7 qualified, holds an MA in HRM and writes Workable, a monthly LinkedIn newsletter on work, technology and what it means to be human.

Here’s a question for you to think about:

What have you started handing to AI out of habit, rather than by choice?

If Ruhul makes you think of someone, a friend or colleague who has been handed AI on top of everything else, send them this episode. It could be the start of a real conversation.

And next Thursday: if you’ve been asked to own AI and your CEO is still waiting for a plan, I’ll talk about the steps you need to take to design one they will approve. I’ll also introduce my new webinar series on exactly that. The first session is on Wednesday 28 October at 12.30pm. You can register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_w7KSj7AtSdi1srHSvXv7vw

Post Summary

‘Happy Thursday’ to all the Hub’s regular readers and a warm ‘welcome’ to our new subscribers.

Have you ever sent something AI wrote without reading every line and then wished you hadn’t?

I have.

Tenor.com gif

And it turns out I’m not the only one because when Ruhul Saiyed’s company used AI to write the copy for their new website, the words “potatoes” and “bacon” turned up scattered through the text. Nobody asked for it, and nobody knows where it came from. Her CEO thought he was seeing things!

He caught it because he read it. Would you have caught it in your report, your client email or your policy?

Last week I said the quest to know “enough” about AI is distracting HR from making the decisions required to move forward. This week you’ll hear from someone who has made those decisions. Ruhul, Business Development Director at Ergaris HR, uses AI every day. She is just very clear about where it stops.

If any of these sound familiar, this one’s for you:

* I use AI every day, but am I checking the outputs properly?

* Have I started handing things over out of habit rather than by choice?

* If AI saves me time, why doesn’t it feel like it?

What you’ll take away:

* The simple checking rule Ruhul’s team brought in afterwards, so nothing like it slips through

* The line Ruhul opens her prompts with so AI stops just agreeing with her

* How to notice when you’ve started handing over your thinking without meaning to

* Why governance and ethics are calls you already make every day, so it’s much easier than it looks from a distance

* A teenager’s thank-you message that will make you think twice before letting AI speak for you

* A better use for the time AI saves you - than doing ‘more work’

And all that in 24 minutes without jargon.

Here’s a question for you to think about:

‘What have you started handing to AI out of habit, rather than by choice?’

If Ruhul makes you think of someone, a friend or colleague who has been handed AI on top of everything else, send them this episode. It could be the start of a real conversation.

I’d be so happy if you shared this post with a friend. Make a creator happy!

And next Thursday: if you’re in HR and have been asked to own AI and your CEO is still waiting for the plan, I’ll help you design one they will approve. This topic is proving so popular that I’m running a second webinar about it on Wednesday 28th October at 12.30. Over 80 HR professionals registered for the webinar last month. You can register for the next one here: Registration Link

See you soon and until then, stay Sovereign,

Hi,

Last week I asked what you’re still researching that, if you’re honest, you already know enough to decide. If you ran a decision through the four tests I shared last week, you may have found something uncomfortable. You did know enough. And you still didn’t have a plan.

That’s where this week’s episode picks up. Because while we keep reading, the decisions are still being made. Just not by us.

If any of the following sound familiar, this one’s for you:

* I’ve done the webinars and read the reports. Why don’t I have a plan yet?

* How do I get involved before a tool is bought, not after?

* What does a plan look like that the business will actually back?

In this episode:

* Why more information won’t bring the clarity you’re waiting for

* What the reported HSBC adviser cuts show about when the people side gets involved

* Why it matters that one in eight small businesses now buy AI on the company card

* The four moves that turn your reading into a plan

8 minutes, no jargon.

Here’s a really important question for you to think about:

When did AI first come up as a people issue in your organisation?

And next week, HR leader Ruhul Saiyed shows me what it looks like once you’ve decided where you are heading and how to get there. ‘Potatoes and bacon considered.’

One more thing. I’m holding another free session later this month for HR leaders who’ve been handed AI to own. More on that next week.

ITM Stay Sovereign,

What happens when someone who has spent their career putting people at the centre of change ends up on the receiving end of it? That’s the question I put to Janet O’Hehir this week. Janet is an organisational development consultant and social scientist whose career runs from emergency services to magic circle law firms, in the UK and her native Australia.

Janet spoke very openly about job hunting through applicant tracking systems. Applications vanish without a word, ghosting has become normal, and the one employer that promised a human would read her CV stood out simply for doing so. I’ll admit her story made me uncomfortable. I’ve been on that side of the process myself, and I’ve also been the one relying on those systems to sift candidates. So we looked at what good would look like. That means starting with the real problem, listening to unsuccessful candidates and recognising that your employee value proposition begins at the very first touch point.

Thanks for reading The Sovereign Hub Podcast! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

From there we turned to judgement. We talked about why a human in the loop needs the training and authority to push back, and what the ICO found when 30 organisations volunteered to have their recruitment pipelines reviewed. Janet describes her work as living in “the white space between the lines on an org chart”, where people and systems meet. We also got into the pressure on the messy middle of management, the lack of investment in leaders and why every organisation should set a minimum standard of AI skills so that everyone has the same footing.

It’s an honest, human conversation, and I think you’ll recognise a lot of it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Thanks for listening. Stay Sovereign,

At midday today I'm running a free session for HR leaders who've been asked to own AI and are still working out where to start. If that feels familiar it's worth reading on.It seems to me that there are lots of professionals in this position and although most have issued the AI policy, completed an AI course, counted the MS Copilot licences, and the CEO still thinks they're scoping it - in truth, things aren't moving forward and they all wish they could get back to the people ops work they love. 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏼‍♂️🤦🏾‍♀️So the webinar will cover :1. Where it's going wrong (chances are - it isn't where you think), 2. The three steps that get you to an AI plan that the CEO will sign off in 4 weeks, and 3. How to take the pressure off and relax while still remaining professional. It's today, Wednesday 30 September at midday, 45 minutes. Here's the link to register: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/yH74tlpYQn-CI_E8fp0jWA

So this is my way of saying the weekly podcast episode will be published tomorrow by 5pm and thank you for bearing with me. See you at midday.

Best wishes,

Carolyn.

Shownotes

What If I'm Missing Something Important? (The Sovereign Hub, Season 2, Episode 2)

You've spent years being the person people trust to get it right. Then AI landed on your desk, and one question keeps stopping you from signing anything off: what if I'm missing something important? What if it goes wrong, and everyone wonders why you didn't see it coming?

In this episode, Carolyn Shepherd gives the honest answer (yes, you probably are missing something, and so is everyone else) and explains why the question is really about your professional reputation, not your knowledge. She then shares four plain tests for knowing when you know enough to make the call, none of which need any technical expertise.

You'll hear:

Why "what if I'm missing something?" feels so personal for HR leadersWhy reading one more report doesn't make the worry go awayFour simple tests: can you explain the options, is more reading changing your mind, can you undo it, and would you only find out by tryingWhat changes once you stop waiting to feel ready, and how you get back to the people work

A question to think about: what are you still researching that, if you're honest, you already know enough to decide?

Join Carolyn live. On the last Wednesday of every month at midday, she runs a free session for HR leaders who've been handed AI to own: how to get your leadership team deciding with you, how to get to a plan your CEO will sign, and how to get back to the people work. Next session: Wednesday 30 September 2026. Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/yH74tlpYQn-CI_E8fp0jWA

The Sovereign Hub is hosted by Carolyn Shepherd, barrister, author and creator of Jobscaping®. Human led, AI forward.

AI can be delegated, but leadership judgement cannot. Stay sovereign.

About Carolyn Shepherd

Carolyn is a barrister, author and keynote speaker who works with people leaders and leadership teams in SMEs who've been handed responsibility for AI. She's the founder of Emmeline AI, creator of Jobscaping®, author of The ChatGPT Advantage and a LinkedIn Learning instructor to over 40,000 learners. She was named on the Digital Leaders AI 100 UK list and as one of HR Magazine's Most Influential Thinkers.

Connect with Carolyn on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolynjshepherd/

AI can be delegated, but leadership judgement cannot. Stay Sovereign.

Hi,

I had a different episode ready for you this week. Then a researcher walked out of Anthropic saying the people building AI believe it could kill us all by the end of the decade, four chief executives said the industry should slow down, the President of the United States said it shouldn’t, and Sheryl Crow told Instagram to pay attention.

So that episode has moved to next week, because this one needed answering first. The question I’ve been asked most since, in the corridor, the car park and by email:

* How could AI actually kill us all?

* Should I be worried?

* And what am I supposed to do about it from my desk?

In this episode

This episode is my answer, and it’s the middle way. Not doomer, not accelerationist. Using our judgement before handing things to AI.

* What actually happened, in three minutes, without the hype.

* The three facts that make the worried, worried: AI learns as a crowd while we learn in silos, it improves itself, and it doesn’t follow rules slavishly, so tell it not to use the door and it may use the window.

* Why the labs can’t just add another rule, and why it looks a lot like a prescription drug cascade.

* The evidence on the other side, which is stronger than the headlines let on.

* Who should be in the room before you say anything to your staff, and whether gut feel is worth anything when the experts admit their numbers are a wild guess.

* Six things you can do this month, none of which needs you to be an AI expert and none of which you do alone.

Thanks for reading this far, The Sovereign Hub Podcast! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Download the companion

30 minutes, no jargon. In the show notes there’s a free companion download, called “Quite a lot, actually”: the six actions you can take - with action points and getting started tips for each one.

Download the guide to this episode here…

Are you going in circles with your AI plans?

And if you’re the HR leader who’s been handed AI, I’m running a free 45-minute webinar on Wednesday 30 September at midday, “How HR leaders get to an AI plan the CEO will sign” and I’m delighted to say that it’s only been announced today and it’s already filling up. Link below.

Here’s a question for you to think about:When the AI headline reaches your organisation, who gets asked first about it, and is it the right person or just the nearest one?

Register for the webinar here…

Registration link

[How HR leaders get to an AI plan the CEO will sign, Wednesday 30 September, 12:00]

Stay Sovereign,

Hi,

Six months into hosting the show, I noticed something changing. People weren’t bringing me career questions any more. They were bringing me decision questions. Have we thought this through? Are we moving too fast? Who carries the can if it goes wrong?

So the show has evolved with them. The Sovereign Career Hub is now The Sovereign Hub. Guest interviews stay, and you’ll hear more solo episodes from me on the conversations that never quite make it into the SLT meeting.

The first one is out today, and it’s about the noise in your head when a decision is yours to own.

* Why “nobody ever got fired for buying IBM” is a familiar trap.

* Why case studies are reassurance dressed up as evidence and

* Why you don’t need to become an AI expert to make a good AI decision, but you do need to get comfortable exercising judgement when the experts disagree and;

* why the sceptic on your leadership team might be the most helpful person in the room (sometimes).

Twenty minutes, no jargon. And in the show notes there’s a free companion guide: the techniques from the episode on a digital download, plus The Decision Noise Collaboration, a twenty-five minute structure for working through a difficult AI decision with a colleague or two. No AI expertise required, just the willingness to talk about the decision noise.

Here’s a question for you to think about: What AI decision are you carrying right now, and who else needs to be in the room before you make the call?

Download the guide to this episode here…

Stay Sovereign!

Carolyn

Ep 13: Who Cares if the Boss is Watching?

First, Some Important Context

In 2006 Gaelle Watson was given the task of running virtual classroom sessions. The internet was different, the infrastructure was different, and so was the mindset: she had to fight her corner to show that the same learning happens behind a screen, and that people can be just as active there. What that work came down to was trust and engagement.

Twenty years on she sees a similar situation with AI. People are not always engaging with it because they do not trust it. Not just the output. They are unsure how they will be seen using it, and what it means for their work if they are seen as replaceable.

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

The Questions We Get Into

How do you build trust with a team you rarely sit next to, and does AI make that harder or easier?

If transparency means being told the truth about your future, can you take it? Could your organisation say it?

Can you be your true self at work when so much of how you come across now passes through an AI filter first?

And if AI can do the manager’s job, do we still need managers? Or do humans essentially need other humans?

Growth or Surveillance?

The tools most of us use every day can already track how long you spend in an application and the words you use with colleagues and clients.

For a learning specialist that is gold: you can revisit a conversation, get personalised feedback and do it better next time.

For an employee it looks like a permanent performance review.

Growth and surveillance, Gaelle says, are the same coin. An employee is very unlikely to trust that data which can be accessed will not be. So ring-fence it. A separate, anonymised space for practice that cannot be accessed for performance purposes. If your practice was shocking, fine. You will learn from it, and it will not cost you your career.

Thanks for reading! This podcast is public so if you like please spread the word.

Unmuting Emotions

Gaelle is Director of SyncSkills Performance, a facilitator working on communication, collaboration and leadership in hybrid and remote teams, and host of the Learning Horizons podcast. She invited me onto her AI in the Workplace series last year, and I recommend it, (and not only because I was on it). She has a law degree and a business degree, no technical background, and describes herself as a Mediterranean woman who waves her hands when she cares. She has been working remotely for over twelve years.

When I asked her where she sits on the AI spectrum she gave herself a six, with a caveat that being French, a twenty out of twenty is unheard of. She is comfortable with the strategy and the tools, curious about what is under the bonnet, and clear-eyed about the risks, ethical and environmental. Powerful, she says, but we have to be intentional about how we use it.

The Sandwiched Manager

I put to her a figure from Bertie Tonks’ LinkedIn post on the quiet collapse of the middle manager: around 6% fewer managers than four years ago. When people go, the work does not, and managers are already sandwiched between leadership and their teams, expected to be coach, systems specialist, ethics lead and health and safety officer at once. Equipping them with AI is essential. But learning a tool takes headspace, permission to make mistakes and time to start with the easy stuff, and that space is very seldom available to managers.

Who Carries the Can?

We also get into accountability, and whether you can hold a person answerable for AI’s mistakes when they are not in control of the output. Two lawyers on a call, so it went somewhere I did not expect: we are accountable because we care, and AI is not driven by that.

And we talk about the double dash. If the first thing your reader sees is one, they are not thinking “keen attention to detail”. They are thinking you did not care enough to write it yourself. The irony being that they have probably used it too.

Her line of the episode: ‘If your practice was shocking, it’s fine. You will learn from it, and it will not be at the detriment of your career.’

Where in your organisation could someone practise badly, safely? And if that place does not exist, who decides what the data gets used for?

Lots to think about in this one.

Listen in and stay sovereign.

Show Notes

About Gaelle

Gaelle Watson is Director of SyncSkills Performance. She works with individuals, teams and organisations on trust, psychological safety and behaviour change, with a particular focus on hybrid, remote and international teams. Her approach is practical and human-centred: she diagnoses behaviours, builds them through practice and feedback, and measures change over time so the impact is visible. She offers leadership facilitation, executive and leadership coaching, and learning and behaviour change consultancy, and works bilingually in English and French with organisations and learning consultancies across the UK and Europe.

Connect with Gaelle on LinkedIn: Gaelle Watson

Learning Horizons podcast (Gaelle's bimonthly show; Carolyn guested on the AI in the Workplace series): [link to add]

Bertie Tonks, THE QUIET COLLAPSE OF THE MIDDLE MANAGER (and why most boards haven't noticed yet), LinkedIn. Source of the 6% figure quoted in the episode.